Golden Snake
by Silver Sailor Ganymede
Summary: AU, HPSM. TomMinako. Fifth year Mina Argent knows who opened the Chamber of Secrets, but she isn't about to tell. At least not if Tom Riddle has his way.


Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or Harry Potter.

**_(A.N: Written for the 30Houshin challenge.)_**

**_(A.N2: I'm sorry about the use of Minako's dub name, but I just figured Mina fit better than Minako considering that this is set in Britain. Hope you enjoy.)_**

Golden Snake  
By Silver Sailor Ganymede

"_Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly,  
'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;  
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,  
And I've a many curious things to shew when you are there." _

Most others in the school would have assumed that the Slytherin common room was a cold, dank place, more like another dungeon than anything else. Sometimes Mina almost wished it were; how could anybody concentrate with the amount of noise in this place? It was nearly as bad, she supposed, as being surrounded by a bunch of _Gryffindors _would be. _Gryffindors_! She shuddered at the thought of them; arrogant pigs, worse even than most of her own House were.

She stood up eventually, deciding that it really _was_ completely impossible to concentrate when there were about ten games of exploding snap and wizard's chess going on around her; Slytherins may have seemed more refined when in the presence of the rest of the school but they were as bad, if not worse than the other Houses in actuality. She picked up her quill, a pot of emerald green ink and her Transfiguration essay and shoved the whole lot into her bag; she had to get this done by tomorrow or Dumbledore would give her detention – and probably take about fifty points from Slytherin to boot. How she hated that man! She strode over to the exit only to find her way blocked when she got there.

"Get out of the way, Malfoy," she snapped, glaring at the tall blond in front of her.

"Now why should I do that?" came the fifth year's reply.

"Abraxas Salazar Malfoy, _get out of my way_," she repeated, her tone more forceful than it had been. "And if you don't, well you'll just find yourself hexed into the middle of next month, won't you?"

"It's the middle of next _week_, Mina," someone laughed and she spun around.

"What's it to you, Nott?" she snapped, "If there was anywhere quiet in this Merlin-damned dungeon then I might be staying here, but I have work to do. Malfoy I already told you to move!"

"Such language from a lady" Malfoy tutted in the most patronising voice he could muster.

"There's worse where that came from, and you'll be hearing it if you don't move!"

"Have it your way, but make no mistake that there will be Hell to pay if you're caught," Malfoy replied. "It _is _after-hours after all."

"I'm not in Slytherin for nothing you know," Mina replied, smiling. "I'll see you later, when I've done this confounded essay; and don't look at me that way, Nott; you know I've never been caught before."

She was out of the common room and halfway down the corridor before any words of warning had even left Nott's mouth. Now where was she going to go? Not one of the deserted dungeons, that would have been far too obvious, even a snivelling Hufflepuff could probably have found her there: and she couldn't go to the library either, that would be a little too risky, even for someone as cunning as she.

Mina sighed and continued up the stairs: soon she was on ground level, but she found herself continuing up and up until she found herself on the third floor. She hadn't met any trouble so far, but it was then that she spotted the figure with the lantern on the other side of the corridor: she had to get out of sight and fast. Doing the first thing that came to mind the ducked behind an old statue as the prefect passed on by. It was then that she spotted exactly whom it was that had almost caught her: William Weasley, a sixth year Gryffindor, one of the few her… tricks wouldn't have worked on; it was lucky she had hidden when she did.

She was never going to get any work done at this rate though, she sighed silently as she realised that. Perhaps it would have been better if she had stayed in the common room after all… but then again perhaps not; she would have had to endure the tauts of Abraxas Malfoy and his friends then, and that she certinly did not want to put up with. She stole quickly and quietly down the maze of corridors and soon found herself outside one of the girl's bathrooms: this was a good enough place as any, Mina decided; no one would think to look for her in here, she could finally do some work!

Mina pushed open the door and stepped inside but stopped dead in her tracks when she had done so. There was someone in there, a boy she recognised as Tom Riddle: he was in the same year as she was. She would not normally have been frightened by his presence – he was a Slytherin after all and a respected one at that – but there was just something about him that night, something that didn't seem natural.

He turned around and smiled at her and it was then that she realised what was wrong; his eyes had changed completely, the irises as red as blood while the rest had become discoloured, yellow like a Basilik's. The King of Snakes they called him, though this was often half in jest, half in spite, but now she could see why; he appeared to be the soul of a snake trapped within the body of a man. His smile widened with maliciousness and he spoke.

"Won't you come in, Argent?" he whispered, but she had already fled, her Transfiguration essay lying forgotten on the floor behind her.

* * *

Mina stormed out into the Hogwarts grounds, swinging her bag around as she did so. She was so _annoyed_! Not only had Dumbledore taken ten points from Slytherin, he had also told her she had to re-do the essay and hand it into him by the next day as _well _as doing extra work. Of course had it been one of his own House then he would probably just have laughed and said it wasn't really that important anyway as he had done on numerous prior occassions. Gryffindors! Oh how she hated them, Dumbledore in particular. She was so wrapped up in her own fury that she walked straight into someone and the contents of her bag flew all over the grass.

"Watch where you're goi…" she began but soon stopped when she realised whom it was she had collided with: Tom Riddle. "I'm sorry," she said quickly, not wanting to annoy him anymore than he probably already was by having emerald ink splattered all over his already tattered robes, nor indeed pausing to wonder why he had been absent from the previous class; she supposed he had just been ill or something.

"What luck," he chuckled, pulling Mina to her feet, his almost colourless eyes twinkling with amusment as he did so. "You're just the person I was hoping to run into, though not quite so literally of course."

Mina could hardly hide her surprise; he was taking the whole thing so good-naturedly and seemed not even to care that his robes were now covered in green ink. When she pointed it out to him he just sighed.

"These are so ruined anyway that I doubt anyone would notice the difference," he said, his voice sounding somewhat bitter, "But then again I've always been partial to the colour green; perhaps I'll make all my robes like this." He laughed then and Mina sighed, bending down to pick up her books and put them back in her bag.

"What were you looking for me for?" she asked.

"You left this behind last night," he replied, taking a roll of parchment out of his bag and handing it to her. "I thought you might want it back."

"My essay," Mina breathed a sigh of relief, "I guess I won't have to re-do it then. Thank you."

"It's no problem," came the reply. "Would you care to join me for a walk?"

There it was again, the aura about him; it was beginning to make her deeply uneasy, just as it had the night before.

"I'm really sorry but I have a lot of work to do," she replied. "I must be going now. Goodbye."

She took off quickly though not as fast as to arouse suspicion from anyone near them: she did not trust the King of Snakes, for what fool would other than one blinded by his own greed?

* * *

"Well look what we have her, the Golden Snake," a laughing voice floated into Mina's hearing. She put down her book and glared at the boy in front of her.

"Get lost, Potter," she snapped at her fellow fifth year. "Shouldn't you and your fellow lions be terrorising some Hufflepuffs or something?"

The dark-haired Gryffindor snorted, "Now why would I want to do that?"

"Don't try messing with me; a Slytherin _first year _would be too much for you to handle," she replied in a bored tone.

"Messing with you?" Hadrian Potter raised an eyebrow. "I'm just trying to be friendly."

"This is a library, if you haven't noticed; people come here to work, go and be friendly somewhere else to _someone _else; someone that's actually interested in a bastard like yourself," Mina replied, turning back to her book in an attempt to get some work done but Potter pulled the it away from her. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Well I fail to see how you can refuse me when you'll covort with someone like Diggory," came the reply. "He's a Gryffindor too and a mudblood to boot so we can't all be as bad as you seem to want to convince yourself we are."

"He's a pureblood actually; you think I'd filthy myself by dating a mudblood? Besides, Gryffindors are mistakes, you all are. Now get lost," she hissed, flushing with a mixture of embarassment and agitation, not wanting to be reminded of _that_.

"I won't get lost unless you're coming with me," he replied.

"You arrogant little…" she growled, getting to her feet. She didn't care how she was 'supposed' to act; Potter was really asking for it! Seeing him with a broken jaw would make her day; he might have been able to square off with her in a wizard's duel but that stuck-up ponce would be no match for her in a _muggle _duel, girl or no.

"Potter, what, praytell, are you doing?" a cold voice asked and none other than Tom Riddle appeared in front of them. "Is he bothering you, Argent?"

"He was just leaving, _weren't you, Potter_?" Mina hissed and the lion skuled off, a venomous look in his eyes as he did so.

Tom sat down and bade Mina join him. She smiled in thanks.

"You looked just about ready to punch him just then, you realise that?" he said and she nodded.

"I can't help it, Tom, you know that" she sighed.

"Well you should be able to," he shot back. "You're a Slytherin after all; we're not weak like them, we don't show our emotions so easily."  
She wrinkled her nose, "You sound exactly like Amadeus Zabini when you say that."

"There's nothing wrong with Zabini," Tom shrugged, referring to the Italian fifth year whose family had moved to Britain just before the war broke out; apparently the economy, being as it was under the influence of Grindelwald, was far too unstable for them to have remained in Italy, he often told them.

They sat in silence for a while then Tom spoke up.

"So, you're the 'Golden Snake' to them, are you?" he asked. "Anything to do with your penchent for Gryffindors?"

"What was that?" she glared coldy at him. "Don't call me that; it's something they made up, I hate it."

"To be honest I think it suits you, though it _is _rather ironic they call you 'gold' when your surname actually means silver," he shrugged, "But I think I'm going to call you that from now on."

"Do whatever you want, Riddle, whatever you want," Mina replied, rolling her eyes and using the same bored tone she had used on Potter earlier.

"Don't worry, I will," he smiled. "And by the way, you've got that completley wrong,"

"Got what wrong?" Mina frowned, utterly confused; what could she possibley have got 'wrong' in a conversation like that.

"You use joberknoll feathers in Veritaserum, not phoenix feathers," he replied, pointing to the potions essay she had been trying to work on.

"Oh," was all Mina had to say.

* * *

The atmosphere in the Great Hall was quiter that day than it usually would have been. Yet more students had been petrified, the sixth and seventh respectively since the mysterious attacks had begun earlier that year. Only the Slytherin table seemed anywhere near normal, probably because no Slytherin students had been attacked yet.

Mina sat opposite Amadeus Zabini, as usual, and was faintly amused as she watched the Italian wizard drain what must have been his seventh cup of coffee within the past fifteen minutes.

"Merda," he hissed upon knocking a cup of boiling coffee over his hand. "Quello è _caldo_."

Mina rolled her eyes "I'm guessing you just scalded yourself on that coffee. Again. You know you're really going to have to kick this caffine addiction sometime soon or you're going to give yourself a heart attack."

"Shut up," he muttered. "That's not even funny."

She shurgged, "It's the truth. Anyway, you got any ideas as to what's causing these attacks."

"I have no idea, no one in the school does; if they did they probably would have caught whoever's behind it by now," he replied.

"I guess," she shrugged, "We're lucky none of us have been attacked by this thing yet though, whatever it is."

"That's because it's only after mudbloods," Amadeus yawned. "No mudblood would make it into Slytherin, would they?"

"What's got into Riddle today?" he asked suddenly, changing the topic completely. "He looks unusually smug."

"He always looks smug," Abraxas Malfoy butted in.

"You're still sore because he beat you to the prefect's position," Nott mumbled.

"I am _not_," Malfoy replied, though it was obvious that he was.

"Of course you aren't," Mina rolled her eyes. "But what's up with him, seriously, looking like that when students are being attacked all round us. I'm going to get to the bottom of this."

"We'd better get to the bottom of the dungeons first," Amadeus replied, "Or Slughorn will skin us."

"No he won't," Mina replied, "We're Slytherins. Besides, I think the mattter concering Tommy-boy here is far more important."

"You won't think so when you get detention," Amadeus replied. "Now come on! We're late enough as it is!"

* * *

Mina had been finding it impossible to sleep that night: she didn't know why but there was something at the back of her mind that was telling her to go for a walk, just to let her feet take her where they wished. She sighed; she hated feeling like this but it did happen at times, especially times such as this when there was bound to be danger present.

She continued wandering around the halls and soon found herself outside a strangely familiar place; the third floor girl's bathroom, the exact same place she had bumped into Tom Riddle when she had been out at night before. She pushed open the door, almost dreading what lay inside, and found once again that Tom was standing there. His eyes appeared normal this time but there was still something about him that made Mina feel uneasy.

She stood there as if petrified for a moment as she heard the hissing come from Tom's throat, making him sound as much like a snake as he had appeared to be on the previous time she had seen him in there. She was shocked when the sinks sunk into the floor to reveal a gaping black hole. Before she had the opportunity to to anything Tom had jumped in and the hole had disappeared behind him, but not before he had spotted her standing there in terror.

* * *

To say that Mina hadn't been completely shocked by the above-mentioned event would not have been an understatement so much as a complete lie. She was wandering around in a daze for about a week afterwards and not even Nott, a master of discovering people's secrets, managed to weasel out of her what had happened. But something had happened; she knew and he knew that she knew. It was only a matter of time before Tom came after her, wasn't it? It was only a matter of time before he set the monster on her tail… yet for some reason she knew that this wasn't the case. The only people that had been petrified by ghosts were mudbloods and she most certinly wasn't one of _them_… but why would Tom have a vendetta aginst mudbloods? He was a pureblood too, at least inasfar as she knew…

She sighed and walked past the common room and further down into the dungeons; she really wasn't in the mood to deal with Malfoy or any of the others, she just wanted some peace. Upon finding a deserted classroom, Mina dumped her bag in a corner and sat down in one of the rotting wooden chairs that were scattered around the room. She began to rock back and forth, back and forth, then the chair snapped and she landed on the floor.

"Ouch," she muttered, standing up and burshing the dust off her skirt.

"You shouldn't do dangerous things you know," a patronising voice came from the shadows and Mina spun around.

"Who's there?"

"I thought we Slytherin's were supposed to be observant," Tom Riddle said as he emerged, smirking, from the shadows. "Though you've already been a little too observent for your own good it seems."

"It's you isn't it?" Mina said quietly. "You're behind these attacks!"

"A little too observent indeed," he sighed, his expression becoming stony even though he was still smiling.

"But why?" she asked.

"Why?" he laughed, "What else would you expect from Slytherin's heir?"

Mina felt the colour drain from her face, "You're insane. Give me a good reason why I shouldn't report you to Professor Dippit for this!"

"Because we're Slytherins, we don't do each other in," he replied. "We have to stick together because everyone else is against us. And besides, who would believe you? It would be my word against yours, Argent, and who would listen to you over me?"

She clenched her fists in anger, "Why are you telling me this, Riddle? What do you want from me?"

"I don't want anthing _from _you," he replied, "I just want _you_." He had kissed her and pulled away before she even had a chance to register what had happened.

* * *

"You want to keep it a secret," he repeated her words with a tone of utter disinterest that was only amplified by the emptiness of the dungeon room they were in. "Is this simply so you can still covort with anyone else you want without being met with disdain?"

"No," she replied, though that was actually at least part of her reasoning. "I just thought that, seeing as you yourself are so secretive, you wouldn't want anyone knowing you were in a relationship with anyone… especially not if that person is me."

"You're ashsamed of yourself," he noted.

"I'm only like this because of how I was raised," she shrugged. "You'd know all about it though, wouldn't you? The pureblood etiquette, the fact that you won't have any indepence once you leave school. I was engaged when I was younger but the boy in question died a few years back."  
"Black," Tom muttered; Narcissus Black, second son of the House of Black, had killed himself two years earlier, not wishing to face his family again after being disowened. He had been a Ravenclaw: the Blacks were Slytherins, they had to be; Ravenclaw was not good enough for them.

"Exactly," Mina nodded, "But it's normal for us to be like this. We all are. Look at Malfoy. Anyway you know this just as well as I do, there's no need for me to be explaining it, is there?"

"Perhaps," he replied and quickly exited the room, a look of utter disgust on his face.

* * *

The silence hung heavy as a cloak over the library that night. Mina had suck out of Slytherin House again in order to take her usual nightly stroll and this time found herself patrolling up and down the bookcases in the family history section of the library, which happened to have detailed documentation on every respectable pureblood family, her own included. She soon found herself looking under 'R': Raeson, Raphael, Ravenhort, Ravenna, Raycroft, Regensberger, Renette, Rhoads, Richtzenhain, Rinella, Rivenburgh: these were just a few of the names that stood out immedeatley… but there was no Riddle.

It sunk it: he was no pureblood, he did not know how her life had been as a child, he could not sympathise at all. Add to that that he was attacking mudbloods… he was a hypocrite, but worse than that… he was a mudblood. She dropped the lamp on the floor: it shattered and went out.

* * *

"You're a liar, Tom!" she practically screamed at him.

"I'm a Slytherin," came his reply, "It's in my nature. Now why don't you tell me what I lied about?"

"You're a mudblood!" she yelled, "You're a filthy mudblood!"

His face contorted into a mask of hatred, not for her but for himself.

"You think I chose to be born this way?" he spat. "If you honestly think that then you're a fool. But don't worry, I won't be this way for much longer: there are spells in existance that purge the blood of such impurities after all."

Mina felt herself begin to tremble at the very mention of such spells, "Dark magic," she whispered.

"The Darkest of all," he replied. "But I am a Slytherin, we have always been pure: and if not only for myself then I will become acceptable for you, because you are beautfiul and I won't let you go."

The girl was so astounded by this comment, for she had never been told honsetly before that she was beautiful, that she did not even hear what he added under his breath.

"I will not let you go; you are mine, my dear golden snake, and I intend to keep it that way."

* * *

The air of depression had come into even the realm of the Slytherins that day: the school was to be closed, they said, unless the one behind the attacks was finally caught. Only the green flames that crackled in the fireplace and occassionally by the sigh of one student or other broke the sound of silence.

"You know," Malfoy finally spoke up, "I honestly can't see why we'd all have to leave. It was a Hufflepuff that died, a mudblood Hufflepuff. Our blood is pure, we won't targeted, none of us will: this is so stupid."

"Someone got killed and you're complaing about them closing the school?" Mina shook her head in astonishment. "I always knew you were a heartless git but this just takes the bread!"

Nott couldn't help but laugh, "You messed up your proverbs again, Mina; it's…"

"I don't _care _what it is," she hissed then flounced out of the common room.

The corriodrs were only a little quieter than the common room had been: such a rarety that was, Mina sighed, a pity that silence came only at such a price. She found herself wandering aimlessly until a hand grabbed her and pulled her into a sideroom.

"What do you think yo…" she began but stopped when she realised whom she was facing. "Tom? What are you out here for?"

"I could ask you the same question," he replied. "Anyway I have good news for you; they're not closing the school."

"What?" Mina gasped, shocked. "How do you know?"

"They caught the person that was behind it."

"You handed youself in?" she whispered, her voice almost inaudible.

"You think I'm an idiot?" he laughed. "No, as far as the school is concerned, Rubeus Hagrid is behind the attacks."

"Hagrid, you mean the Gryffindor?" Mina asked, "The bumbling half-giant of a third year?"

"Exactly."

"But who would believe he was behind it all?" Mina asked in confusion.

"He has a love of keeping things as pets that most people would keep locked up in a cage as far away as possible from themselves," Tom replied. "This time it was an acromantula: of course Dippit and the others don't know exactly what it was and so won't suspect a thing. It's a foolproof plan, which is exactly what I needed considring the amount of fools in this place."

Had this been any other time, Mina probably would have laughed at what he had just said: but it was not some other time and she did not find it amusing in the slightest.

"Somebody died and you're saying things like this… doing things like this… why?"

"I am a Slytherin," he replied. "The King of Snakes. And you, my beauty, are the queen."

She melted into his embrace, her worries and anger instantly forgotten.

* * *

"Why are you leaving?" she asked him, her eyes wide with shock. They had been together for years… and now this. "Don't leave me, you can't!"

"I have to, my pretty golden snake," he replied. "I must become pure, exactly like I promised you I would."

"You can't leave me, please…" she grabbed on to the sleeve of his robes but he simply shoved her away. "I love you."

He never replied.

* * *

There was nothing unusual about that night, no storms raging outside, no signs that something was wrong… yet Mina, now Mina Zabini, was worried: something was coming, something she had never thought she would face again. She stood up and found that she was walking out of the door and into the garden, almost against her own will; it was exactly like what she had felt all those years before. Soon enough she stopped by the woods that bordered the manor grounds and was met by a hooded figure.

"So still you come, my golden snake," the voice that spoke was familiar, too familiar, as was the way she was being called by that long-forgotten nickname.

"Tom?" she whispered. The figure nodded and pushed back the hood of its cloak. Mina gasped: it was Tom indeed, but not the Tom she had known so long ago: his skin, always pale, was now whiter than the bone, and his once colourless irises were now tinted red as though by blood and the rest discoloured like those of a Basilisk, just like she had seen them once before, so long ago. She felt that aura again, that malevolance…

"You told me you would remain loyal to me," he whispered. "I did this for you, I purified myself for you…"

"Listen to me, Tom. I waited but you never came back… I…" she tried to tell him through her fear but he cut her off with an icy laugh.

"Tom? Tom Marvolo Riddle is dead, dear: Tom Marvolo Riddle has been dead for years. I am not that filthy muggle anymore… I am Lord Voldemort," he paused and studied the expression on her face, then spoke again at last, "But if I cannot have you then I'm afraid that no one can. Goodbye, my dear golden snake."

The killing curse was cast before she even had a chance to register what was happening. In that night, under the cold argenitine light of the moon, the stars had become stained with blood and a woman lay dead at the Dark Lord's feet.

_Thinking only of her crested head -- poor foolish thing! At last,  
Up jumped the cunning Spider, and fiercely held her fast.  
He dragged her up his winding stair, into his dismal den,  
Within his little parlour -- but she ne'er came out again!_


End file.
